OPEC significantly reduced its crude-oil production in January, making good on its latest deal to curb output and rebalance an oversupplied market, the oil cartel said Tuesday.
In its closely watched monthly oil market report, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said its crude output had fallen by 797,000 barrels a day in January, month-on month, to average 30.81 million barrels a day, citing secondary sources. The bulk of the cuts were shouldered by Saudi Arabia—the de facto head of OPEC—as well as the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, according to the report.
The report provides the most official data to date that OPEC is fulfilling its pledge from late last year to mop up excess global oil supply through coordinated production cuts.
In December, OPEC and a group of 10 producers outside the cartel, led by Russia, agreed to hold back output by a collective 1.2 million barrels a day for the first half of 2019. OPEC member states agreed to cut 800,000 barrels a day of that quota, with Saudi Arabia—the world’s largest exporter of crude—handling a 250,000-barrel a day reduction.
An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com
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